A novel process for manufacturing porous 316 L stainless steel with uniform pore distribution.

In the present work, a new technique for creating uniform distributed space holder is used for producing porous 316 L stainless steel foam. Uniform pore distribution with Face-Centered Cubic (FCC) packing is created by a novel method using spherical carbamide as a space holder. The specimens have maximum porosity about 71.5% after sintering at 1200 °C for 60 min in N 2 atmosphere. The microstructure of the metal foams, cell size and shape was studied using optical microscopy and Clemex Vision PE commercial image-analyzer software. The compression test was used to evaluate the mechanical properties of the foam samples. The results showed that uniform pore distribution can improve elastic properties and compressive strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]